1871.] 
FRUIT-TREE MANAGEMENT. 
255 
It seems, for instance, a little thing where roots run to in a well-made fruit- 
tree border. The entire border has been well drained and made of the best materials ; 
it is full of plant food, sweet and good. The further the roots roam the more 
food they will get, and the more and better supplies will they send home. Let 
them run and interlace, and hug each other closely like children at play, the 
more the merrier, or at least, the stronger and the healthier. But stop a bit! 
Have you considered the unalterable rule that sways as with a sceptre of iron 
these roots and rootlets ; the most to the biggest and the strongest ? What, then, 
must become of the weakest ? Again, is it a good thing for strong roots to eat so 
much; will not this appetite degenerate into gluttonous licence, and that, again, 
run out into grossness of leaf and bough, rather than plump out into rosy fruit ? 
Any excess of good root-food proves highly injurious to fruit-bearing plants ; it 
throws them off the lines of fertility altogether, and makes them sterile, and con¬ 
sequently worthless. Neither is it by any means certain that those roots fare 
best, to use an East-Anglian phrase, that go farthest for their food. They may 
often go farther, and fare worse; and those which run farthest often send least 
food home. Very much of it may be spent on the journey ; a good deal in mere 
root extension. 
Therefore I come to the conclusion that to keep the roots of fruit-trees near 
home tends to an equitable distribution of food, places them under facile control, 
and is favourable at once to their health, strength, and fertility. These first two 
propositions are self-evident. Of course, if the roots of each tree are kept within 
short range of the boles, we know where they are, and consequently can readily 
supply the special wants of each separately. The strong and the weak may 
each have their right portion, not only in due season, but in proper quantity, 
and of the best quality for each. Again, certainty about position assures facility 
of control. If kept near home, we always know where to find them. 
At first sight, it may not be so obvious how keeping the roots at home 
should promote the health, strength, and fertility of the trees. A few 
words, however, will, I trust, make this clear. The roots can only be kept at 
home, say within three or six feet of the bole, by pruning. Now I assert that 
this pruning, wisely performed, is a cause of root health. It multiplies the num¬ 
ber and alters the character of the roots. It would unduly extend this paper to 
point out how I think it does both, but that it actually does so, I have proved 
many times by actual observation. More roots, and of better quality, mean also, 
of course, a higher state of health. Grossness, the great open door of disease, 
alike in the vegetable and animal kingdom, disappears before the healthy 
fibrous roots that spring forth after skilful root-pruning, and is succeeded by 
that firm, compact, closely-knit growth that holds an embryo fruit beneath 
each nut-brown bud. But when the breath of spring comes, it breathes upon 
these roots, which have never once slumbered at their posts all winter, and bathes 
the bud-cases with sunshine and with dew, and the tree awakes transfigured, 
